Affective Fear of Crime and Its Association with Depressive Feelings and Life Satisfaction in Advanced Age: Cognitive Emotion Regulation as a Moderator?

Nadezhda Golovchanova,Katja Boersma,Karin Hellfeldt,Henrik Andershed

doi:10.3390/ijerph18094727

Abstract

Fear of crime is a substantial problem for older adults and is associated with reduced subjective well-being. However, less is known about factors that could moderate the associations between fear of crime and mental health problems and well-being in advanced age. Cognitive emotion regulation could serve as a potentially buffering factor for adverse health outcomes related to fear of crime due to its potential importance in managing feelings when facing threatening situations. The current study investigated the associations between affective fear of crime with depressive feelings and life satisfaction and examined whether adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies moderated these associations in a sample of older adults (age 64–106) in Sweden (N = 622). The results showed that affective fear of crime was associated with more depressive feelings, less life satisfaction, and more frequent use of such maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies as rumination, catastrophizing, and blaming others. Moreover, rumination and self-blame moderated the associations between affective fear of crime and life satisfaction. Adaptive emotion regulation strategies were not associated with affective fear of crime and did not decrease the strength of its association with depressive feelings and with life satisfaction. These findings allow us to conclude that maladaptive emotion regulation could be considered a vulnerability factor in the association of fear of crime with life satisfaction.

Highlights

Accepted: 26 April 2021Perceived safety is an important element of well-being while aging
In line with previous studies that examined the association of fear of crime with mental health aspects and life satisfaction [3,34,35], we further explore these associations between fear of crime and well-being indicators in advanced age
We explored whether using adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies such as acceptance, positive refocusing, and putting into perspective helps to downregulate the emotional response to a perceived criminal threat and whether these strategies altered the strength of the association between fear of crime and depressive feelings and life satisfaction

Summary

Introduction

Accepted: 26 April 2021Perceived safety is an important element of well-being while aging. Because feeling safe and secure is among the central elements of quality of life while aging [8,9], the association between fear of crime as a factor of unsafety and aspects of well-being in advanced age warrants more research attention. Fear of crime can potentially undermine quality of life in older adults, little is known about factors that could decrease or strengthen the associations between fear of crime, mental health problems, and subjective well-being in advanced age. Cognitive emotion regulation deserves special attention because of its potential importance in managing feelings when facing threatening situations [10]. Cognitive emotion regulation has been shown to be an important mechanism related to maintaining higher levels of well-being when facing difficulties in various life domains [12,13].

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Discussion

Conclusion